Wherein I discuss whatever comes to mind… seriously, whatever!

Swim Clubs

I’m pretty embarrassed to admit this. I did not realize until this summer that there really are no public swimming pools in our area — maybe all of California. How could I not know this? I’ve lived here for 15 years now. You’d think I would have noticed. I mean, there is one at Washington Park up the street, but it’s pretty run down and small. It’s not like what I grew up with. More to the point, it seems to be used primarily for community swimming classes.

Perhaps the reason I didn’t notice is that our townhouse complex has a pool. Since our gate opens to it, it seems like it’s ours. Maybe the Washington Park pool tricked me; although, admittedly I’ve been to many parks without pools. Many have some sort of water play — is that the reason?

I also noted that many of Keb’s classmates aren’t available because they’re going swimming at “their club.” At first I found this quaint and weird, then I realized that if you don’t have a pool you kinda/sorta/haveta belong to a club. Yet, I find the idea of a swimming/tennis club to be wrong. I can’t pinpoint the real word, but it’s wrong. You’re paying money to belong to a club to swim where no one else can swim unless they can afford it. It might not be racist, but it’s certainly class-ist. Heck for fun and entertainment, I went searching for fees. As they say, people who can afford it don’t look at price tags. <sigh>

It seems to me that Californians, with their perceived liberal attitudes (not), would find such things unacceptable. After all, if you’re all about “diversity” wouldn’t you be willing to take your kids to a “mixed pool” for swimming. Why have private swim clubs?

Seriously, there is something so “separate, but equal” about this that disturbs me to the core. It’s like the 60s never happened. … or perhaps they just didn’t get the memo.